Monday, 27 March 2017

I was saddened to receive confirmation this morning that composer
Alessandro Alessandroni has died in Rome at the age of 92. Not only an
established composer in his own right, Alessandroni was also hugely
respected and adored among the Eastwood community as working alongside Ennio
Morricone and for famously providing that signature whistling that peppered
those wonderful western scores.

As a tribute, I have decided to post the English translation from the
Italian news network repubblica.it. I have also made a couple of minor adjustments
to avoid confusion as a result of that translation.

"It's very simple. I [received]
a phone call (from) Ennio Morricone [who] said: 'Sandra, come on down for a
moment, in the room [studio], you need to make a fischiatina' (a whistle). Well, it was
really a fischiatina, nothing more, but think about what it is happened next
... When we saw the film, I have to admit that no one thought that would make any
money. “Instead, the 'fischiatina' really did change everything. Alessandro
Alessandroni, the Master - it is right to call it - says the opening words of
the most famous of his career and most iconic piece of Western movies, that for
a fistful of dollars, made up of Morricone, which made the films of Sergio
Leone - and practically all the best western movie - even bigger. The composer, conductor and
arranger Alessandro Alessandroni died in Rome, the city that March 18th, 1925
gave birth, March 26. He had just turned 92 years. The announcement came on the
official Facebook page of the composer: "It is with great sorrow that I
inform you of the death yesterday maestro Alessandro Alessandroni born in Rome
on March 18, 1925, composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and choir
conductor. It will be a memorial service at home in Namibia with music and
musicians directed by his son Alex Jr. Alessandroni ".

Alessandroni approached music
when he was still a boy. At the time he lives in the mother country, in the
province of Viterbo. He was 11 years old and listened insistently, whenever he
could to classical music. He began playing the guitar with assistance from a
friend. The site is one of those details. He told in an interview to the blog
Planet Hexacord : "I started in the barber shop, because in small
countries is a reference point: there were the instruments, the guitar, the
mandolin. They worked a little, but they played a lot. .. ". While he is
attending the last year of high school he formed his first ensemble, with which
he toured for local and dance halls. Fast to learn in a short time become
proficient in several instruments, alternating during her performances: a
teenager is already able to play the guitar, the piano, the accordion, sax,
flute, mandolin and sitar, one of the first Italians to try their hand in this
complex stringed instrument. Obtained diploma at the Conservatory in Rome, find
a job in the film production company Fonolux There he meets the great Nino
Rota, his senior by 14 years, who wants him in his orchestra. Then came the
whistle. It was almost by accident. Alessandroni, at some point, when volunteers
Rota needs a reason booed. Whistling become its new tool to play with and one
of the characterizing moments spaghetti western soundtracks. Music in effect:
"My whistle parts are on the staff," explained Alessandroni,
"and woe to miss the pitch, to make mistakes." The thought also
Federico Fellini, author of his soprannonme: Alessandroni for him was simply
"The Whistle".

In 1962 he founded the octet I
Cantori Moderni, a formation of his previous group, the Caravels Quartet. With
them - the band is formed by soprano Edda Dell'Orso, Augusto Giardino, Franco
Cosacchi, Nino Gods, Enzo Gioieni, Gianna Spagnuolo and, not least, the wife of
Alessandroni Giulia De Mutiis.

The most important co-operation
and long life of Alessandroni remains today the one with Ennio Morricone:
besides the famous whistle for A Fistful of Dollars will also work in For a Few
Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Alessandroni is called by all
the most important Italian composers of the time, in the sixties, such as Piero
Umiliani, for which sings with his wife Julia in fantastic reason Mah-mah-nà nà
, extracted from the soundtrack of Sweden, hell and paradise of Luigi Scattini
(1968) and with the master Armando Trovajoli.

With the arrival of the
seventies, the ARC of the RCA, the label dedicated to the 'young Italian song',
between beats and 'world exotico', a disc-public collection of twelve songs in
the race edition of 1969 Canzonissima. They are recorded, of course, in an
instrumental version and work on the Hammond organ solo is credited to Ron
Alexander, his pseudonym.

The name of Alessandroni had
become of worship across the board, had crossed generations and musical styles,
and especially among library music lovers. Among the last to want it in their
record Baustelle, group of Montepulciano, who chose him for one of their best
albums. "Alessandro Alessandroni is the oldest guest," explained
Francesco Bianconi, the singer, "a wonderful eighty-four that we did play
the sitar, accordion, acoustic guitar and we did blow the whistle". The
song title, not surprisingly, was Spaghetti Western - The album, Amen.

RIP Maestro – our thoughts and condolences are with the Alessandroni
family.

Sunday, 19 March 2017

Jack Robinson, Jr. (September 18,
1928 – December 15, 1997) was an American photographer and stained glass
designer. Robinson was freelance photographer for Vogue and The New York Times
from the 1950s to the early 1970s before he left New York to return home to the
American South and pursue a career as a stained glass designer.

In July, 1969, actor Clint Eastwood
met Robinson for this photo session. By 1969, Eastwood had already appeared in
several popular spaghetti westerns and the television show Rawhide. His films
Hang ’em High and Coogan’s Bluff had been released the previous year and soon
after these photographs were taken, Paint Your Wagon would be his next film to
be released.

Tuesday, 14 March 2017

At the weekend I was informed by
several people that the author of The Bridges of Madison County, Robert James
Waller had sadly passed away aged 77. I have decided to post The New York Times
tribute by William Grimes as it’s a nicely written and an entirely fitting piece.
My thanks also to my U.S. friend Kevin Walsh for also providing the full page tribute (left) that appeared in today’s New York Times.

Robert James Waller, whose gauzy,
romantic novel “The Bridges of Madison County” became a runaway best seller on
its publication in 1992 and the basis of a popular film, died on Friday at his
home in Fredericksburg, Tex. He was 77. The cause was multiple myeloma, his
daughter, Rachael Waller, said.

The novel came out of the blue.
Mr. Waller, on leave from teaching business at the University of Northern Iowa,
was shooting pictures with a friend along the Mississippi River in the early
1990s when he decided to make a detour and photograph covered bridges in
Madison County, Iowa. He was an enthusiastic guitarist and singer, and years
earlier he had written a song about the dreams of a woman named Francesca. An
idea stirred.

Two weeks later he had completed
the manuscript of “The Bridges of Madison County.” It told the tale of
Francesca, a 45-year-old Italian war bride on an Iowa farm whose life takes an
unexpected turn when Robert Kincaid, 52, a free-spirited photographer, stops by
one day to ask directions to the Roseman Covered Bridge. She is temporarily
alone, her husband and two children away at the state fair. Francesca and
Robert discover that they are kindred spirits, a thirst for love, and a torrid
affair commences. It lasts just four days — but four days unlike any other.

“God or the universe or whatever
one chooses to label the great systems of balance and order does not recognize
Earth-time,” Kincaid tells her in a post-affair letter. “To the universe four
days is no different than four billion light-years.”

Many critics found the characters
unconvincing, the sentiments sappy and the writing overripe. Kincaid, who
called himself “one of the last cowboys,” was fond of delivering statements
like “I am the highway and a peregrine and all the sails that ever went to
sea.”

Millions of readers, however,
found Mr. Waller’s story of reawakened love deeply moving. The Orlando Sentinel
spoke for them when it wrote, “This lyrically written first novel is as perfect
as a tear — and don’t be surprised if you shed a few upon reading it.”

Oprah Winfrey, who broadcast a
special edition of her television show from Madison County, called it “a gift
to the country.”

“Bridges” leapt to the top of the
best-seller lists and stayed there, eventually outselling “Gone with the Wind.”
It took root on The New York Times’s list and remained there for three years,
becoming, as Entertainment Weekly put it, “The Book That Would Not Die.”

The film, released in 1995,
starred Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood and was directed by Mr. Eastwood. It
was also reincarnated as a Broadway musical in 2014, starring Kelli O’Hara and
Steven Pasquale. Robert James Waller Jr. was born on Aug. 1, 1939, in Charles
City, Iowa, and grew up in nearby Rockford, about 125 miles northeast of Des
Moines. His father was a chicken-and-egg wholesaler and a local magistrate. His
mother, the former Ruth Welch, was a homemaker. He won a basketball scholarship
to the University of Iowa but transferred in his freshman year to Iowa State
Teachers College (renamed the State College of Iowa in 1961). While an
undergraduate, he married Georgia Wiedemeier, whom he had met at a dance in
Iowa City. The marriage ended in divorce.

In addition to his daughter, he
is survived by his wife, Linda Bow, and a granddaughter. Mr. Waller earned a
bachelor’s degree in business education in 1962 and a master’s in education in
1964 before pursuing graduate work at Indiana University’s school of business.
He was awarded a doctorate of business administration in finance in 1968. His thesis
was on the American guitar industry. He returned to his undergraduate alma
mater, renamed the University of Northern Iowa in 1967, and taught management
and economics there. In 1980 he was appointed dean of its business school.

On the side he began writing
travel and nature essays for The Des Moines Register’s Sunday edition. These
were collected in “Just beyond the Firelight: Stories and Essays” (1988) and “One
Good Road Is Enough” (1990). Fed up with teaching, Mr. Waller took an unpaid
leave of absence in 1990 and obtained a $200,000 grant from the state to study
the future of the region. His report, “Iowa: Perspectives on Today and Tomorrow,”
was published in 1991.With “Bridges” still riding high, Mr. Waller recorded an
album, “The Ballads of Madison County,” and in 10 days wrote his second novel,
“Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend,” about the love affair between an economics
professor and a colleague’s wife. With a first printing of a million copies,
it, too, shot to the top of the best-seller lists.

Seeking solitude, Mr. Waller
moved to a run-down ranch in Alpine, Tex., southeast of El Paso. The high
desert country provided the setting for his novels “Puerto Vallarta Squeeze:
The Run for el Norte” (1995) and “Border Music” (1995). Both sold well, but not
spectacularly.

Mr. Waller decided to revisit the
scene of his first novel in “A Thousand Country Roads: An Epilogue to The
Bridges of Madison County,” published in 2002. It continued the adventures of
an older, lonelier Kincaid, who hits the road again and, at one point, finds
his way back to covered-bridge territory. In his next novel, “High Plains
Tango” (2005), Mr. Waller passed the generational baton to Kincaid’s son, a
master carpenter who battles to stop development on the site of an Indian
burial ground in South Dakota. Mr. Waller’s last novel, “The Long Night of
Winchell Dear” (2006), was a taut, atmospheric thriller about a retired
professional poker player and a fateful night at his ranch in the Texas desert.
The romantic flame ignited by “The Bridges of Madison County” was slow to die.

“I receive letters each week from
people who have read it and are moved by the story,” Mr. Waller told Book Page
in 2005. “At one time, I received 50 to 100 letters per week. Now it’s more on
the order of five. The last I knew, 350 marriage ceremonies had been celebrated
at Roseman Bridge.”

Sunday, 5 March 2017

It was just about a week ago that news came filtering
through that actor Bill Paxton had suddenly died following complications from
heart surgery, he was just 61. I was reminded that I had some photos on file of
Bill and Clint together, I just couldn’t remember what event it was. I’ve
finally managed to locate them, and strangely enough it was almost 2 years to
the day. The event was the Annual Sun Valley Film Festival. Clint was being
honoured the festival's Lifetime Vision Award. Unfortunately, I didn’t get
around to posting the event at the time. I’ve posted a couple of pieces here
from stories covering the event and of course it provides a nice opportunity to
share these photos. Both Bruce Dern (Hang ‘em high) and Bill Paxton were in attendance
for the festival’s Coffee Talks where industry experts offered their insights
to festival audiences each morning. Our sincere thoughts and condolences are of course with the
family of the great Bill Paxton.

SVFF has struck a unique balance of accessibility,
affordability, glitz and glamour

By George Prentice

SVFF Director Candice Pate on Clint Eastwood, inaugural
recipient of the festival's Lifetime Vision Award: "He keeps besting
himself, and he has a career that has had so many peaks. I'm sure that he'll
have another peak five years from now. But for now, we have him."

Who can say what the script looks like for a perfect film
festival? Cannes, Sundance and Telluride claim international notoriety,
superstars and top-tier films. I've attended all of the above film festivals
and more; and when asked to recommend one over the other, I offer caveats that
begin with two questions: "How many thousands of dollars do you plan on
spending?" and, "How do you feel about standing in line for four
hours to see a 90-minute film?" The film festival experience, like other
high-profile events such as the Olympics or the Super Bowl, can turn out to be
a slog and can be glaring examples of the growing chasm between the haves and
have nots.

Then there's the Sun Valley Film Festival. Still in its
infancy (this is its fourth year), SVFF has struck a unique balance of
accessibility and affordability, along with more than its share of glitz and
glamour. SVFF Director Candice Pate likes to call it a "sweet mix."

"We certainly own the things that make the festival
unique, but there's also the significant factor of the capacity of Sun Valley.
With a few years under our belt, I'm realising that it's a sweet mix of
both," Pate told Boise Weekly. "Hopefully our choices reflect that,
with the films that we choose and the talent that we bring. It still remains to
be seen, but it sure feels pretty good right now."

There are significant milestones in the life of a film
festival. In Sun Valley, the first was the 2013 appearance of two-time Oscar
winner Jodie Foster, who cautioned attendees to, "Remember how it is now.
Years from now, the lines may be longer, and you'll think back." SVFF's
next major landmark will undoubtedly be this year's appearance of four-time
Oscar winner Clint Eastwood.

"I can't tell you everything about how we secured Mr.
Eastwood, but he made a film here [1985's Pale Rider, filmed in the Boulder and
Sawtooth mountains], and he loves Sun Valley," said Pate. "I know
that he gets requests to be honored 17 times a day, but I think the reason he
said 'yes' to us is that he really gets what we're doing."

Eastwood was nominated for another Oscar for the current box
office sensation American Sniper. The film won the Best Sound Editing Oscar,
with a team of technicians giving a shout-out to Eastwood during their
acceptance speech. And when Eastwood arrives in Sun Valley, he'll receive
SVFF's inaugural Lifetime Vision Award.

"Eastwood keeps besting himself, and he has a career
that has had so many peaks," said Pate. "I'm sure that he'll have
another peak five years from now. But for now, we have him."

Through its highly popular "Coffee Talks," SVFF
will also allow attendees to get some face-time with Bruce Dern (Nebraska,
Coming Home) and Bill Paxton (Titanic, Apollo 13, Big Love), who will pull
double duty by hosting a 20th anniversary screening of Apollo 13.

"I really felt that getting some higher-profile talent
this year would help us get on the radar of folks in the industry and certainly
attendees," said Pate. "Getting to spend time with all this talent,
actors, Oscar-nominated screenwriters and directors, that's the intimacy part
of our festival. When I visit other festivals, part of me is envious of their
infrastructure and huge sponsors, but what we offer is our special guests—and
attendees can interact in a relaxed environment and truly celebrate filmmaking."

More than 60 films, curated from hundreds of entries, will
be showcased on screens throughout the Wood River Valley, with something new
coming to some place old: The Sun Valley Opera House. Just in time for this
year's festival, the Opera House has undergone a $60,000 projection and sound
upgrade.

"It's a world-class experience juxtaposed in an
historic opera house. It's a huge investment by the [Sun Valley] resort,"
said Pate.

As for visitors, Pate said, "What really blows me away
is that I've been watching our sales of festival passes come in from Italy,
Alaska, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, you name it. I want to email each one of
them and ask, 'How did you hear about us?'"

It turns out that SVFF spends little on national
advertising, instead investing in its internal communications/public relations
arm to help tell its story. "Word of mouth is a big part of it. Honestly,
some of that comes from reading your articles or blogs in Boise Weekly,"
Pate said. "A lot of people who come to explore the festival feel like
they're the ones that discovered it."

The trailblazing resumes Wednesday, March 4, and with Clint
Eastwood at the end of this year's trail, it's certain there will more
"explorers" at SVFF 2015.

Clint upon receiving his award:

“I absolutely love Sun Valley. I was lucky enough to make a movie here (Pale
Rider), and if I had my way I would hang out here all the time. But I guess I’ll have to make another movie
at some point since my last movie (American Sniper) did fairly well. So much of this business is hard work and a
lot of good luck. And tonight I consider myself lucky to get to know you all. I
can only wish you the best of luck to keep this great film festival going for
many years to come.”

Saturday, 4 March 2017

It has widely been accepted that Eastwood’s original hopes and
intent for The Warriors (which eventually became Kelly’s Heroes) were regrettably
destroyed. I have gathered a few notes together which I have had stored on file for
some time now, in order to try and provide a clearer account of exactly what
happened.

The late 60s were a turbulent time for MGM with a great deal
of changes occurring. In particular, James Aubrey had been assigned as head of
production by the studio. Within days of his hiring, twelve films were cancelled
because of financial issues. The original project was announced by MGM in
November 1968 under the title of The Warriors. The original script for The
Warriors was written with much more of an anti-war sentiment at its heart. Upon
completion of the film, it barely resembled the script that Clint had originally
read and enjoyed so much.

Before examining what happened and how the changes came
about, it’s perhaps important to look at a few changes which happened prior to
any shooting. A Clint favourite, George Kennedy turned down a role despite an
offered fee of $300,000 because he reportedly didn’t like the part. It’s hard
to establish which role, but I could have visualised him comfortably playing
Big Joe. Kennedy had appeared for MGM a couple of years earlier in their
blockbuster The Dirty Dozen (1967). Big Joe was of course eventually played by
Telly Savalas, another star of The Dirty Dozen, as was Donald Sutherland who also
appeared in Kelly’s Heroes as Oddball. One of the other significant changes was
Kelly’s Heroes inclusion of a female character. However, prior to filming, the
part was cut from the script. Ingrid Pitt, who had already been cast in the
role, (and had been in Hutton’s movie Where Eagles Dare with Eastwood the
previous year), revealed that she was "virtually climbing on board the
plane bound for Yugoslavia when word came through that my part had been
cut."

According to Ben Mankiewicz in his pre-movie introduction of
May 2015 for Turner Classic Movies, filming commenced in July 1969 and was
completed in December. It was shot on location in the Istrian village of
Vižinada in Croatia (former Yugoslavia) and London. Yugoslavia was chosen
mostly because earnings from previous showings of movies there could not be
taken out of the country, but could be used to fund the production. Another
reason Yugoslavia was selected was that in 1969, Yugoslavia was one of the few
nations whose army was still equipped with operating World War II mechanised
equipment, both German and American. This simplified logistics tremendously.

Before Brian G. Hutton was on board, and ‘at Clint's behest, Don Siegel was offered the picture, but he was tied up on the post-production with Two Mules for Sister Sara, and so, with Clint's approval, the assignment went to the pyrotechnically inclined Brian Hutton. He, not unnaturally, wanted to stress the kind of action that had worked for him in Where Eagles Dare which went into its successful release just before Kelly’s Heroes went on location’.Once filming was complete, the Post-production stages of
Kelly’s Heroes were an even bigger mess than the shoot, which had now dragged
on for nine months on location in both Mexico and Yugoslavia. As mentioned
above, MGM’s new head was James Aubrey, who hadn't originally approved the film.
Aubrey was no longer interested in epic-sized pictures, preferring small budget
films that could still yield profits for the studio. After viewing Hutton's original
cut, Aubrey insisted the film should be a simple "Clint Eastwood
action-adventure" and ordered substantial revisions that wound up changing
the whole tone of the film. Aubrey was also the man responsible for changing the
title from The Warriors to Kelly's Heroes.

Approximately 20 minutes were cut from the film by
MGM before the film’s theatrical release. Eastwood said later
in interviews that he was very disappointed about the re-cut by MGM because he
felt that many of the deleted scenes not only added depth to the characters,
but also made the movie much better. Some of the deleted scenes survive through MGM promotional stills.

‘It was a very fine anti-militaristic script, one that said
some important things about the war, about this propensity that man has to
destroy himself. In the editing, the scenes that put the debate in
philosophical terms were cut and they kept adding action scenes. When it was
finished, the picture had lost its soul. If action and reflection had been
better balanced, it would have reached a much broader audience. I don't know if
the studio exercised pressure on the director or if it was the director who
lost his vision along the way, but I know that the picture would have been far
superior if there hadn't been this attempt to satisfy action fans at any cost.
And it would have been just as spectacular and attractive. It's not an accident
that some action movies work and others don't. What makes the difference is the
quality of the writing.’

The late Richard Schickel discussed the problems with filming
Kelly's Heroes and Clint's displeasure with the finished film in detail in his
book Clint Eastwood, a Biography:

‘Financed by MGM, and featuring an all-star cast, it was a
self-contradictory enterprise. A military adventure, to be made on something
close to an epic scale, it was also supposed to be an anti-war satire, somewhat
along the lines of such contemporary films as Castle Keep, M*A*S*H, Catch-22
and Too Late the Hero, all of which, one way or another, spoke of public disgust
with the war in Vietnam.

It was this aspect of the project that stirred Clint. Around
this time he confessed that he had voted for Nixon in 1968 because he regarded
Johnson's bombing halt as a cynical electoral ploy of Hubert Humphrey. But he
still had no enthusiasm for the Vietnam adventure or for militarism in general,
and Troy Kennedy Martin's original script expressed these feelings - in Clint's
opinion, movingly and adroitly.

Running more than two hours, Kelly's Heroes is a messily
contradictory and never fully resolved movie. Besides being, occasionally, an anti-war
satire, it is also from time to time a caper (or bunch of guys-rob-a-vault)
comedy, an old-fashioned service (or bunch-of-goldbricks-goof-off) comedy and,
yes, a straight bunch-of-guys-on-a-mission piece. To put the point simply, it
tried to be all things to all audiences and so, naturally, ended up a muddle - although,
right up to the end, Clint thought it could be straightened out.

Hutton, who did not have final cut, had no choice but to
oblige Aubrey, and when Clint saw what had been done to the film, he told the
director, "Brian, you can't release this." To which the director, who
had been fighting the good fight, replied wearily, "Well, that's the way
they want to do it," adding that the studio had a release date
"creeping up on them." The implication was that even if the studio
liked Clint's ideas there wouldn't be time to execute them.

In general Clint felt that the film's comedy now played too
broadly, and specifically he was dismayed at the excision of a transition scene
between the picture's second and third acts in which, as he recalls, he and the
character played by Telly Savalas "just sort of summed up the philosophy
of those loose ends, and what the war had done to them." He goes so far as
to say that "its soul was taken out, a little bit of its soul was
robbed"’

In his book, Schickel goes on to describe how Clint tried unsuccessfully
to convince Aubrey that he could fix the film himself if given just a single
day in the editing room, but Aubrey wasn't at all interested.

Clint's displeasure with Kelly's Heroes was so great,
especially coming on the heels of his disappointment and dragged out filming
experience on Paint Your Wagon, that from this point on Clint would take fuller
control of his projects, producing most of the remainder of his films, and
within another year, he would also be directing most of them as well. It was
also rumoured that Clint had made his own cut of Kelly’s Heroes, but as of yet,
nothing has ever surfaced. Now that would really be something to behold…

Friday, 3 March 2017

Yes, long before the Hogs Breath Inn, Clint was demonstrating his culinary skills to the St. Petersburg Independent Newspaper (1907-1986). Clint's next film due for release was Where Eagles Dare where he had little time for cooking. However, on the menu some 48 years ago was Western Bone Marrow Stew and of course Eggs Carmel... I'm sure it tasted better than it sounds.

Thursday, 2 March 2017

On December 10th 1980,
Clint was honoured by The Department of Film of The Museum of Modern Art on 11
West 53 Street, New York City. Over the course of the day, 4 films were shown –
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) which signified his first break and international
stardom, Escape from Alcatraz (1979) representing his collaboration with Don Siegel,
Play Misty for Me (1971) representing Clint’s directorial debut and Bronco
Billy (1980) representing Clint’s latest film which he also directed. Clint was
at the event and introduced both Misty and Billy.

The event was the first homage
paid him by a major American cultural institution. Since then, Clint has
enjoyed a long standing relationship with the Museum of Modern Art who expanded
the program in 1993 for a second tribute.

I have included here two of my
original full page ads from 1980, one from the William Morris Agency and the
other from Warner Bros. Below that is the original press release issued by MOMA
in 1980.

Wednesday, 1 March 2017

With Sofia Coppola’s forthcoming remake
of The Beguiled (due for release in June 2017) drawing ever closer, I thought
it would be interesting to look back on Don Siegel’s original movie which was
released almost 46 years ago.

According to sources, The Beguiled was released
on March 31st 1971 in New York City at the Cinerama and the R.K.O.
59th Street Twin Theatres. However, there was also a screening which (arguably)
took place as early as December 1970. We do know that it took place at the Directors'
Guild theatre in Hollywood. Eastwood was in attendance that night, as was 21-year-old
co-star Jo Ann Harris who arrived in great hippie garb which somewhat signified
the closing of a particular era. Also present was legendary star Robert Mitchum.
Mitchum’s younger brother John was about to star as Frank DiGiorgio alongside
Clint in his next project, Dirty Harry (also directed by Don Siegel).

I have also included here, Vincent
Canby’s original New York Times review from April 1st, 1971, the day
following its New York release. It wasn’t the greatest of review’s, and the
film failed to create much business, due largely to Universal’s failure in
promoting the film accurately. The film was far better accepted in Europe,
particularly in France. Today, The Beguiled is considered as something of a
minor masterpiece. It will certainly be interesting to see how Coppola’s new remake
will be accepted – almost half a century on.

Clint Eastwood is star of
Siegel's 'The Beguiled'

Donald Siegel's "The
Beguiled," which opened yesterday at the Cinerama and the R.K.O. 59th
Street Twin Theaters, sounds simple enough on paper: Clint Eastwood, as a
wounded Yankee soldier, charms and then terrorizes the ladies who nurse him
back to health at a very peculiar, more or less forgotten, Louisiana seminary
during the closing days of the War Between the States. Nothing, however, is as
straightforward as it seems in "The Beguiled," not even its
perversities. Take, for example, the lovely
opening sequence in which a little, 12-year-old girl comes upon the body of the
soldier in the forest. She is, at first, frozen with fear. Through her mind we
hear her wonder whether her father died the same way. Cut to the soldier, and
through his eyes we see a curious, shapeless child swim into focus. They talk, exchange names, and
just before the child helps him to stand, he draws her down beside him and
gives her a long, not really friendly kiss on the mouth. She's confused, but
immensely happy.

The film thus begins as a quite
odd Civil War romance, evolves into a battle of the sexes in which the man is
more vanquished than victor, and then turns into the kind of grotesque
character comedy that might—mistakenly, I think—be identified as gothic horror.
There is certainly horror in "The Beguiled," but it is played for
what amounts to an extended, completely silent laugh.

Whether this is intentional or
not, I've no way of knowing, but there's no other way to explain the amusingly
overripe excesses in a film by a man who has, heretofore, managed to make films
that were more complex in effect and a good deal more simple in design
("Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "Two Mules for Sister
Sara").

"The Beguiled" is Mr.
Siegel's 26th film, as well as his most ambitious and elaborate. I'm not
referring to the sets, costumes and Spanish moss-hung locations (the exteriors
were filmed in Louisiana at a fine, photogenic, old plantation), but to the
narrative style. The movie employs, in addition to straight exposition,
interior thoughts spoken on the sound-track, flashbacks that contradict spoken
dialogue and the kind of fantasies commonly enjoyed—according to literary
convention—by hashish smokers, sailors and sex-starved spinsters.

In fact, every major character in
the movie, with the exception of Eastwood, is a female suffering to a greater
or lesser degree from the need for a man, including the little girl (Pamelyn
Ferdin) who first finds the soldier, the precocious 17-year-old (Jo Ann
Harris), who seduces Eastwood with the graces of Belle Watling, and the sweet
virginal teacher (Elizabeth Hartman), who comes close to being an unequivocally
decent person, the only one in the film.

The most deprived (ergo,
according to Hollywood Freud, the wildest and most dangerous) woman is the
seminary's headmistress (Geraldine Page), whose initial flashback, as she
stares at the bloody, maggoty soldier, is to the bed in which she and her
brother made frenzied, slow-motion love. My favorite fantasy, however, is Miss
Page's wine-induced dream in which she, Eastwood and Miss Hartman make love and
then assume the positions of a pietà, more exhausted, I suspect, than
sorrowing.

This is very fancy, outrageous
fantasizing from the man who gave us "Riot in Cell Block 11"
and" Baby Face Nelson," and must strike horror in the hearts of those
Siegel fans who've made a cult of his objectivity. "The Beguiled" is
not, indeed, successful as baroque melodrama, and, towards the end, there are
so many twists and turns of plot and character that everything that's gone
before is neutralized. People who consider themselves discriminating
moviegoers, but who are uncommitted to Mr. Siegel will be hard put to accept
it, other than as a sensational, misogynistic nightmare.

I must say that I found it
interesting (even when it approached the ludicrous) because of its place in
relation to other Siegel films and because I have nothing but appreciation for
the performers, especially Miss Page, Miss Hartman and Mr. Eastwood, who, by
simply reacting well, has become an important actor of movies.

One final note: The screen
credits list John B. Sherry and Grimes Grice as authors of the screenplay,
adapted from the novel by Thomas Cullinan. Those are the pseudonyms,
respectively, of Albert Maltz, who did the initial screenplay, reported to have
been a romantic comedy, and Irene Kamp, who did the rewrite with help, I'm
told, from Claude Traverse, the associate producer. This may explain some of
the peculiarities of the completed film.